This Bay Area band has buzz going in the modern metal world. After seeing a multitude of positive reviews about this new album, I had to check it out and chime in. Once again, a polished turd prevails over emotional response. Fallujah play tight, technical progressive death metal. As the fandom for this slick shit grows, I would bet that fans would be willing to lick the sweat of the collective members’ nuts just to absorb talent, or pay the band back in a reach-around sort of way. Basically, there are almost two things going on here: heavy blast beat–ridden death with an ultra proggy atmosphere behind it. All the guitar wanking (it’s a hell of a lot of wanking) and pulsating drumming in the world doesn’t make up for the fact that the album is like a stale doughnut—it may look, good but it’s a nasty taste to swallow. –Bryer Wharton